In The Background
by fidelis5588
Summary: Caleb comes to Tyler's aid when he least expects it.Implied CalebTyler slash.


**Title:** In the Background  
**Fandom:** The Covenant  
**Characters:** Caleb/Tyler  
**Prompt:** Always  
**Rating:** R for Language

A/N: This was also written for lover100 over on Please read and review!

"Jesus Christ!"

I whirl around, to watch as Aaron, and a couple of his buddies barrel toward Tyler, who has let out the squeal of alarm. God only knows what he and Reid have done this time to upset them, and frankly, I don't care. I'm almost too late, it seems, because they've already plowed Tyler's slight form over into a fumbling fist fight.

Instantly panic is welling up in the put of my stomach. Not Tyler. Not the baby boy. Reid and Pogue are, for once, no where in sight. With narrowing eyes, a bright flare of flame skips across the liquid surface of my eyeballs before I can feel them fade to a stark black. And it feels so good to use. To feel that power, so red-hot it's almost freezing pulsing through my temples, moving, changing things, it calms my nerves just to use even this slightest trickle of the Power.

All of a sudden, one of Aaron's little flunkies is stopping. He's shaking his hand, and then Aaron himself is stopping, standing up, slapping at the back of his neck like it's the end of the world. "The fuck?"

"Fucking spiders, man!"

I've got my arms crossed over my chest, and I'm standing in the background, looking like an innocent –but amused- by stander in this whole incident. A slight smile begins to crack across my faces as Aaron and the two other boys with him haul off in a different direction, still howling.

…..

I walk nonchalantly over, to stand at Tyler's side. Anxiously I look him over. He almost got hurt. Almost. It's a relief to see he is scratch free. I take one of his hands and haul him up. When he let go I reached up and ran both my hands up his forearms, past his biceps, (he's been working on them, I can tell) over his shoulders. Nothing tender, nothing broken.

"Thanks man, I kinda froze up." Tyler says, with a nod, and a note in his voice that means I'm supposed to let him have his space now.

"Always here for ya, babyboy." I say, and my hands slip away. No harm, No foul.

There's a subtly in guy-relationships that's more than a little hard to describe. I think it's easier for girls because really, they don't have boundaries like we do. They can talk, and giggle, and do that weird lounging all over each other thing they do, and then follow it up with going to the bathroom in packs, and still not be labeled anything other than girls.

But good God. Ask another guy to go to the bathroom with you, and the first thing you're gonna get, -after a weird look- is a swift jab in the nose. It's like asking the President of the United States what color his underwear is. You just don't.

….and now I'm rambling. But you know, what I meant was, sometimes I can't see the line. You know. That line. The one that if you cross it, there's no going back and there's no apologies. It's just awkwardness and rejection and funny sidelong glances for the rest of the friendship-which may have just been dramatically shortened.

With Tyler and Reid, and especially Pogue, the line has become even more and more blurred over the years. When it started there wasn't really a line. There was maybe, a smudge. Then we went through a period of where the line was very, very clear and very bold. You know the time. When cracking voices and raging hormones abound, and you're really insecure on the inside so you put on a front and brag about how many times you whacked off last night, and about the girl you kissed behind the janitors closet last Tuesday before gym.

And now, its like, it's fading again. It's getting thinner, and more fragile, but it's fading. It bends a little now, has a little give to it that it maybe didn't have before. I can call Pogue any damn time I feel like it and no one gives it a second thought. I can distribute hugs and smush into the backseat of a car and grab forearms, and no one minds.

I feel like we're melding into one unit. Even if Reid is an asshole part of the time, every day brings us closer. Pogue and I have never been better friends. Reid is just starting to show the slightest resentment to the fact that I'll be Ascending first, someday soon, but we're pretty tight. And Tyler and I…

But when am I crossing the line between brotherly bonds of affection and something else?

Yesterday I whipped up a wind and chilled the back of Tyler's neck, just so I could watch him pop his collar. I rushed to push the black out of my eyes at the same time I rushed to push this guilt back. That's not really wrong, is it?

Tyler's cute. That's all it is. He's the youngest, that's all. I'm overprotective. I think of him as a little sibling. He's got little things he's always done that I'm endeared to. That's all it is. He's just always been the youngest, always been the responsibility of the rest of us. And I feel like lately, I've been catapulted into position of leader of us. The Covenant, from the very beginning has always been about respect and hierarchy. I'm starting to grow into my role. I'm scared, frankly. I don't know if I was cut out for this. This leadership thing.

But I do know what role I have in Tyler's life. Tyler has _always _been my responsibility to protect, and he always will be.

The next one will be about Tyler's birth


End file.
